PRL V2 router lift

[Michael Drew]

I've had this lift for a few years. It's actually a rebranded lift that Woodcraft was selling for a brief time. One thing that always bothered me was the slope in the gear box when changing up/down direction. At first I just learned to deal with it, and would only make small adjustments in one direction, then lock the thing down. I tried to add a DRO gauge to the thing, but ran into a grounding issue and gave up on that thing every working correctly. So now I find myself not using the fine adjustment at all. I just tap the router up/down with the fast lift rod engaged. I recently watched a video with the Incra lift set up and thought to myself, damn, sure wish I had that lift...... Before I spend another $300 or so, figured I'd ask this group if there might be an improvement or modification I can make to my PRL router lift??

[ChrisA Edwards]

I have the PRL V2 is one router table and the Jessem Master Lift II (which is rebadged for Incra) is the end of my table saw.

Of the two, the PRL V2 gets used the most, but it is not easy to set unless the support legs are kept really clean. I did have to send my PRL V2 back to Woodpeckers to replace the fine adjust gear components, they are Nylon and just wore out. They did this for free, but I still had to pay shipping and that router was gone for the best part of 3 weeks.

Of the two, I prefer the Jessum (Incra).

[Michael Drew]

Thanks for the input. I have a 'spare' gearbox already. When I initially installed this thing, I called and asked if there was anything I could do to eliminate this up/down slope, and they sent me a new gear box, thinking I might have a bad one. I swapped them, but there was no improvement.

I've disassembled the left a couple times and gave it a good cleaning a couple times now.